Canada has formally initiated the regulatory process of licensing its proposed deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel, with the country’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announcing that it has submitted an initial project description to the Canadian government.

According to the NWMO, the initial project description is a foundational document, detailing the repository’s purpose, need, and expected benefits and explaining how the project will be implemented. It also provides a preliminary assessment of potential impacts and describes measures to avoid or mitigate them. The NWMO is the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing Canada’s nuclear waste.

Canada has formally initiated the regulatory process of licensing its proposed deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel, with the country’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announcing that it has submitted an initial project description to the Canadian government.

According to the NWMO, the initial project description is a foundational document, detailing the repository’s purpose, need, and expected benefits and explaining how the project will be implemented. It also provides a preliminary assessment of potential impacts and describes measures to avoid or mitigate them. The NWMO is the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing Canada’s nuclear waste.

Workers change out spent 27,000-pound TSCR filter columns and place them on a nearby storage pad during a planned outage in 2023. (Photo: DOE)

While the Department of Energy recently celebrated the beginning of hot commissioning of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which has begun immobilizing the site’s radioactive tank waste in glass through vitrification, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has reported a possible bottleneck in waste processing. According to the DNFSB, unless current systems run efficiently, the issue could result in the interruption of operations at the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, where waste vitrification takes place.

During operations, the LAW Facility will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day, according to Bechtel, the contractor leading design, construction, and commissioning of the WTP. That waste is piped to the facility after being treated by Hanford’s Tanks Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, which filters undissolved solid material and removes cesium from liquid waste.

According to a November 7 activity report by the DNFSB, the TSCR system may not be able to produce waste feed fast enough to keep up with the LAW Facility’s vitrification rate.

Holtec International announced that it has been awarded a turnkey supply contract by Taiwan Power Company to establish indoor dry spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at both the closed Chinshan and Kuosheng nuclear power plant sites on the island nation.

France’s Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR) completed its technical review and issued a satisfactory opinion on Andra’s license application to construct the Cigéo deep geological disposal facility. Andra is the French national agency responsible for the safe management of all radioactive waste in the country.

Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation Nuclear has announced the completion of a three-year project to manufacture, physically test, and validate a disposal-ready universal canister system (UCS) for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from advanced reactors.

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office is weighing options on reprocessing approximately 9,700 tons of contaminated nickel being stored at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could do more to improve its oversight of decommissioning trust funds, according to an assessment by the NRC’s Office of Inspector General. In particular, the assessment, which was conducted by Crowe LLP on behalf of the OIG, identified four areas related to developing policies and procedures, workflows, and other support that would enhance NRC oversight of the trust funds.

Holtec International has completed a spent nuclear fuel dry storage campaign at NextEra Energy’s St. Lucie nuclear power plant in record time, according to the company. Twelve of Holtec's HI-STORM FW cask systems were loaded to the plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) in little over one month. In total, 144 spent fuel assemblies were moved from St. Lucie’s used fuel pools to the ISFSI pad.

Sellafield Ltd., the site license company overseeing the decommissioning of the United Kingdom’s Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England, has awarded a 15-year framework contract worth up to £4.6 billion ($6 billion) to support “high hazard risk reduction programs” at the site.

The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA), a nongovernmental organization made up of 81 member states working to advance the safe, beneficial use of subsurface spaces, is working with the International Atomic Energy Agency to support the advancement of geologic disposal facilities for high-level radioactive waste.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and its contractor Bechtel announced on October 15 the start of nuclear vitrification operations at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), also known as the Vit Plant, at the Hanford Site in Washington state.

The American Nuclear Society has sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright with a set of recommendations for the Department of Energy to take to establish an effective national program to manage the storage, reprocessing, and final disposal of U.S. commercial used nuclear fuel.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency has issued a report calling for more-detailed information on tracking the decay heat of spent nuclear fuel from light water reactors. According to the NEA, the report highlights the increasing importance of accurate decay heat estimations due to evolving fuel characteristics, including higher initial fuel enrichment, increased burn-up rates, and extended reactor cycle lengths.

The report, Summary of the NEA Assessment on Spent Nuclear Fuel Decay Heat for Light Water Reactors, summarizes the findings of a subgroup of the NEA’s Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS), which ran from January 2022 to January 2024.

Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation Nuclear announced it has signed a technology licensing agreement with government contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, giving Navarro access to Deep Isolation’s portfolio of intellectual property for use in nuclear and hazardous waste management applications across the states of Tennessee and Idaho.

WM Symposia, which hosts the annual Waste Management Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., announced it has signed a practical arrangement with the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at strengthening international collaboration in the safe management of radioactive waste, decommissioning, and environmental remediation.

Global engineering company Amentum announced plans on Thursday to create 3,000 new jobs over the next four years on the back of growth in nuclear power and defense in the United Kingdom.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s state visit to the U.K., during which a number of deals between the two countries were announced.

Nuclear Waste Services, the radioactive waste management subsidiary of the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, has reported on its inaugural year of the National Youth Forum on Geological Disposal. NWS set up the initiative, in partnership with the environmental consultancy firm ARUP and the not-for-profit organization The Young Foundation, to give young people the chance to share their views on the government’s plans to develop a geological disposal facility (GDF) for the safe, secure, and long-term disposal of radioactive waste.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said the Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) has recycled more than 2,100 tons of noncontaminated metal debris since 2022 as it works to demolish three legacy Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program prototypes at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, saving taxpayers nearly $2 million in disposal costs while advancing the project’s environmental goals.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a statement on September 9 denying reports that the Department of Energy plans to terminate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state.